Come On, Get Up Metro News One!
by theyellowumbrella
Summary: Robin and Barney's first Christmas as a married couple. Rated T because I can't remember if there's any swearing.


**Hey guys, I'm so sorry I've not been updating, but I'm ****super busy with school and exams and the rush up to Christmas and I know thats a crappy excuse but it's true. Hopefully, though, I'm getting a new laptop for Christmas, which will mean a lot more updating. I have been writing, I promise. I've not been working on any updates, but I have the very start of a chapter of The One With The Kid and I'll start one for Maybe Someday soon. Those are the two I'd like to finish most, as I think they're the ones with the best ideas and the most popular ones. I'm sorry for so many hiatus', but I'm also going through a lot of personal shit right now so yeah. Anyway, enough with this ridiculously long authors note and onto the (hopefully) cute Christmas Swarkles one shot I wrote a few days ago. I've started writing for a fandom that I got into when I was young. Okay, seriously, bye. I hope this makes up for my hiatus. **

Barney Stinson has always loved Christmas. He's always loved the pretty lights and the trees and the inflatable Santa's. That feeling of excitement you get when you run through to the living room and see your presents under the tree, stacked on top of one another and in great huge piles. When he was a kid, him and his brother James always used to wake up as early as they could and they ran through to their mom's room and woke her up. They would jump on her bed and shake it about until she gave in and went downstairs to open presents with them.

When he became an adult, he spent Christmas at home, like he always had. He spent every Christmas at home in Staten Island with James and his mom until 2005. That was the year Robin joined the group. Robin - the feisty, independent woman that he had grown to love. The one that made him smile on the gloomiest of days. He remembers that Christmas like no other; he was sick and she had insisted on taking care of him. She had sorted him up and made him right as rain. Each year after that, the gang made it a tradition that they would all spend Christmas together in Manhattan; where Lily would cook turkey and they would all eat candy until they were fit to burst and watch all of the old Christmasy movies they had watched thousands of times before and were able to quote.

Christmas of 2013, he's never been happier. He wakes up at 6:30 and gets up. The tree that him and Robin hung on the first of December has presents all around it and the stockings that he's had ever since they started the stupid tradition that are hanging above the fireplace are stuffed with gifts. He rattles a few and checks the name tags and then decides to make breakfast. There's not much left; a few eggs and some half-drank, almost-out-of-date milk. He shoves the door closed and then relaxes on the sofa. Sitting on the mantlepiece is a picture of him, Robin, Ted, Lily, Marshall and baby Marvin on the day of their wedding. Marvin's throwing up on Marshall, Ted's panicking and dabbing at him and Lily's trying to free her son from his father's grip. Him and Robin are standing together, looking at each other as if it was just them in the room. He smiles and turns the TV on.

Annie Claus Is Coming To Town's on, and it's the bit where Ted (he always chuckles at that) finds out that Dean isn't really a lawyer but an actor. He remembers Robin telling him when she was drunk that it's her favourite Christmas movie of all time (even if it was only made in 2011). He chuckles at the memory and watches for about fifteen minutes, before getting up and creeping through to the bedroom. He places the mug of coffee he made for Robin down on the bedside cabinet and taps her on the shoulder.

"Merry Christmas." He whispers in a soft voice, so as not to shock her. She groans and flips onto her side. "Robin? Hey, Robin?"

"What? It's like... the middle of the night."

"Robin, it's 6:49 AM. You get up at 5:30 every morning for work. Come on, I made you coffee. And Annie Claus is on. It's almost done, but I recorded it for you, so we can watch it if you want."

"Fine." She grumbles. She rolls over and after a

moment, climbs out of the bed. "Coffee." He hands her the mug with the dancing teddy bear on it that he'd poured her coffee into. "Annie." He takes his wife's (he still loves saying that) hand and guides her through to the living room.

"Merry Christmas!" He exclaims, kissing her.

"Merry Christmas, Barney. Our first as husband and wife."

"And ninth all together." He smiles. "Here, take the remote and find Anna in the recording list. Or something else you wanna watch, whatever."

She flicks through the selection aimlessly, getting bored with season the names "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Ice Road Truckers" repeatedly. "Really, Barney?"

"What? Massacre's good."

"Playboy." She smiles. "You really haven't changed, have you?"

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"It's a good thing." After a while, she sees something that makes her stop dead in her tracks.

"What is it? Found something you like?" He asks sweetly.

""Come On, Get Up New York!"" She says, her throat drying up.

"Oh, God, Robin-"

""92 episodes, 92 episodes viewed.""

"Robin, I-"

"You watched all of that? Every single tedious episode of that horrible TV show? And you still have it recorded, even though it was like, five years ago?"

He shrugs. "It's no biggie. Just thought I should watch it. Look at this." He instructs, taking the remote and racing past several shows about food wars. He finally lands on something that makes Robin's heart stop for a second. It's right there, in black and white. She rereads it and rereads it but it doesn't go away. Metro News One. He presses play and she begins to watch 26-year-old her report on some stupid piece of "news".

"I can't believe you kept all this."

"I watch every episode of WWN." He says as if it's no big deal.

"Well, yeah, but I knew about that." She leans in and kisses him. "This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me."

"Come on, Robin. It's just some TV shows. It's no blue French horn."

"You're right. It is no blue French horn. It's better, cause this came from the heart. You did this with no intention of me finding out, which makes it cuter. I love you."

"I love you too." He mumbles, kissing her again. "Think we can pull in a quickie before Marshall and Lily's?"

"Let me check. Uh, hell yeah." She says and he carries her off to the bedroom. That's definitely her favourite Christmas.


End file.
